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Seed Eating in Elephant Dung by Two Large Mammals in the Congo Republic Florence Magliocca, Sophie Quérouil, Annie Gautier-Hion

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Seed Eating in Elephant Dung by Two Large Mammals in the Congo Republic Florence Magliocca, Sophie Quérouil, Annie Gautier-Hion Seed eating in elephant dung by two large mammals in the Congo Republic Florence Magliocca, Sophie Quérouil, Annie Gautier-Hion To cite this version: Florence Magliocca, Sophie Quérouil, Annie Gautier-Hion. Seed eating in elephant dung by two large mammals in the Congo Republic. Revue d’Ecologie, Terre et Vie, Société nationale de protection de la nature, 2003, 58 (1), pp.143–149. hal-01320844 HAL Id: hal-01320844 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01320844 Submitted on 6 Sep 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. NOTES BRÈVES SEED EATING IN ELEPHANT DUNG BY TWO LARGE MAMMALS IN THE CONGO REPUBLIC l F. MAGLIOCCA l, S. QUÉROUIL & A. GAUTIER-HION l RÉ SUMÉ Au Congo, dans une clairière forestière visitée par de nombreux éléphants, des sitatun­ gas appartenant à un groupe résident et des potamochères issus de trois groupes visiteurs fouillent régulièrement les crottins d'éléphants pour y prélever des graines. Ce comportement représente 33% des activités alimentaires des potamochères et 20% de celles des sitatungas. Ces graines constituent une source alimentaire significative et l'affouragement dans les crot­ tins semble un comportement répandu dans la région. Cette prédation de graines après disper­ sion n'a pas d'effet sur la régénération forestière car les crottins d'éléphants sont déposés dans des zones où les graines ne germent pas en raison de l'hydromorphie et du piétinement du sol. Lorsque les éléphants déposent leurs crottins dans des clairières marécageuses, ils ne peuvent être considérés comme des disperseurs efficaces de graines. SUMMARY In a Congolese forest clearing visited regularly by a number of elephants, a resident group of sitatungas and three visiting groups of red river hogs were observed to forage on ele­ phant dung for seeds. This accounted for 33% of feeding time in hogs and 20% in sitatungas. Seeds taken from elephant dung constitute a significant food resource and foraging in dung seems to be a widespread phenomenon in the region. This post-dispersal seed predation has no effect on forest regeneration because in clearings elephant dung are deposited where seeds do not germinate due to the soi! hydromorphy and trampling. When dung are deposited in swamp clearings, elephants cannot be considered as efficient seed dispersers. INTRODUCTION In the Republic of Congo-Brazzaville as well as the Central AfricanRepublic, forest elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis Matchie, 1900) are known to visit regularly forest clearings, where they spend most of their time pumping out and drinking mineral-rich water in small streams and waterholes (Turkalo & Fay, 1995; Quérouil et al., 1999; Magliocca, 2000). North of the Parc National d'Odzala (PNO) 1 UMR 6552, CNRS - Université Rennes !, Ethologie-Evolution-Ecologie, Station Biologique, 35380 Paimpont, France. Rev. Écol. (Terre Vie), vol. 58, 2003. - 143 - 2 in Congo, one hundred natural clearings are distributed over a 1 500 km area and are visited regularly by large mammals including elephants (Vanleeuwe et al., 1998). At the Maya Nord clearing, elephants are present on average 7 out of 8 days and daily visits include a mean number of 34 elephants (Quérouil et al., 1999; Magliocca, 2000). During the night, up to one hundred individuals may congregate there. In the morning, numerous fresh dung piles can be found mainly in streams and on their banks. Two of the five large mammals which visit the clearing in addi­ tion to elephants, the sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekei Sclater, 1864) and the red river hog (Potamochoerus porcus Linnaeus, 1758), were observed to forage in fresh ele­ phant dung. In this paper, we describe their behavior, the amount of time they spent foraging in dung, and the kind of food eaten. Then, we discuss the relative impor­ tance of this feeding behavior for the two mammal populations and comment on this post seed-dispersal predation. MATERIAL AND METHODS STUDIED SPECIES Tragelaphus spekei gratus has a large distribution area centered on the Congo Basin. This forest species mainly inhabits swampy areas and may enter clearings and gallery forests where permanent water is available. lt is known to eat leaves, herbaceous vegetation and seeds and to possess a nycthemeral activity rhythm (Malbrant & MacLatchy, 1949; Magliocca et al., 2002). Potamochoerus p. porcus is present in dense forests and gallery forests of Western and Central Africa and is also observed in bordering savannas. lt has an omnivorous diet that includes fruit and seeds, tubers, roots and animal prey collected by night and day (Malbrant & MacLatchy, 1949; Ghiglieri et al., 1982; Kingdon, 1982; Magliocca, 2000). Adult males of both species may weigh up to 80 kg. Sitatungas females weigh 40 kg on average and females hogs, 45-55 kg (Malbrant & MacLatchy, 1949; Manning, 1983). STUDY SITE The Maya Nord clearing is located North of the PNO (01° 08' N-15° OO' E). It averages 20 ha and is covered by herbaceous vegetation dominated by Cyperaceae (12 species out of the 45 identified) and Gramineae (5 species) which is seasonally flooded. lt is surrounded by dense primary forests and Marantaceae forests. It is crossed by several streams forming two waterholes where elephants gather and pump muddy water out (Magliocca et al., 1999). STUDY METHODS Observations were made from a 4-meter high platform located at the edge of the clearing from October 1996 to June 1997 and in August-September 1998. Observations lasted for a total of 132 days and 1 434 hours during which we recor­ ded all the changes in the number of animais present at the clearing. Respectively - 144 - 1 434 and 404 hours of direct observation were obtained for sitatungas and hogs. Time spent feeding at the clearing was recorded using scan sampling. Records were made every 15 min, for 45 full-days (6 a.m.- 5 p.m.; n = 495 h) for sitatungas and 31 days (n = 190 h) for hogs. Three feeding activities were recognized: feeding on herbaceous vegetation, foraging in elephant dung and suckling. RESULTS TOTAL TIME-SPENT AT THE CLEARING AND TIME-SPENT FEEDING A single group of sitatungas was permanently present at the clearing during the day. Its size varied from 16 to 24 animals. A few animais sometimes went into the forest after sunset. In addition, from the end oHanuary to the beginning-of March, at least one of the two adult males was absent fromthe clearing on 80% of the obser­ vation days. Three identified groups of hogs (including 2, 3 and 7 animais respectively) and some unrecognized individuals visited the clearing on 58% of the observation days. The mean duration of their daily visits was 5 h 30 (range: 2 min- 11 h). At the clearing, sitatungas spent 27% of their time feeding (n = 8 698 records; Table 1): feeding on herbaceous vegetation accounted for 79% of their feeding acti­ vities and foraging in elephant dung for 20%. Adult females spent more time fee­ ding than adult males and young (0-10 months; 29.4 vs. 25.6 and 22.8% respecti­ vely; XJiz = 60, p < 0.001). However, adult males spent significantly more time m = foraging dung than females and young (53.5% vs. 18.4 and 14.0%; xa12 467, p < 0.001). Unweaned young about 2 months old were seen digging in dung. On average, seed-eating bouts lasted 70 min, 33 min, and 18 min per day for males, females and young respectively. TABLE 1 Distribution of different feeding activities in sitatungas and hogs. ( ): Number of individuals. HOGS SITATUNGAS ail individuals total group adult males ad. + sub-ad. females young (12) (16-24) (1-2) (9-13) (3-8) time spent feeding % 52.7% 27.0% 25.6% 29.4% 22.8% (n records) (654) (8 698) (587) (5 286) (2 542) feedingon herbaceous vegetation, % 66.8 79.3 46.5 81.6 81.6 foraging in dung, % 33.2 19.6 53.5 18.4 14.0 suckling, % 0 1.1 0 0 4.4 - 145 - At the clearing, hogs spent 53% of their day- time feeding (n = 654 records), including 67% foraging in herbaceous vegetation, eating herbs and digging the soi! for roots, tubers and possibly animal prey, and 33% foraging in elephant dungs (Table 1). Their presence during the night cannot be ascertained. DUNG FORAGING AND KINDS OF FOOD EA TEN Early in the morning, sitatungas and hogs dug fresh elephant dung in a syste­ matic manner. Both species searched primarily in dung piles deposited in streams rather than in those found on stream banks (75% and 88% vs. 25% and 12% respec­ tively). However, whereas sitatungas could immerse their heads and necks to reach seeds in deep water holes, hogs always foraged in shallow streams and only immer­ sed their snouts. Both species used their snouts to dig the dung and select nuts and seeds (Fig. 1). Hogs also used their fore-legs to rid seeds of dung fibers before eating them. Both species selected large seeds and avoided fibrous material in which small seeds and insects wern embedded. Figure 1. -An adult female Tragelaphus spekei gratus, with her son, digging elephant dung deposited in a stream. Fresh dung disintegrated quickly in water and only the heaviest items piled up while most of fibers were carried away. Three main plant species were identified in these deposits: Panda oleosa nuts (Pandaceae), Strombosia pustulata nuts (Olaca­ ceae) and Strychnos camptoneura seeds (Loganiaceae).
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